Highway to nowhere

The city's roads department has its signals branch located on Gladstone on either side of the O-Train cut. The yards are full of signal poles and light fixtures. Mostly these lights are "out" at night; but one recent evening there were multiple heads cycling through red-yellow-green.

 Immediately behind them is a dense patch of bush, through which a ped path winds that will someday become the cycling path along the Otrain corridor.

Toronto Late

The latest issue of Toronto Life magazine arrived. In it is a major article on the many reasons to love Toronto. Number 24 is the proposed building of an underpass art gallery. Upon closer reading, it consists of putting 24 mosaics or painted panels onto the walls of an underpass. This is definitely trendy and  cutting edge nifty stuff ... for Toronto.

For local West Side residents, it should seem familiar as the Preston underpass has had both painted panels (some with 3D elements) and murals showing the immigration process with a ship arriving at Pier 21 in Halifax, and Preston street life yesterday and today.

Welcome to the modern city, Toronto. Better late than never.

Preston street truffle hunt

Seen growing along the Cyclopiste de Preston trail along the O-Train corridor. Maybe they are truffles ... it is Little Italy after all. 

Rich Trend

I spotted this school bus in the municipal parking lot along Preston. Its cargo was walking en masse across Preston to attend a yoga studio.

It says ... something ... that the denizens of affluent Rockcliffe Park and the city's elite private academy are migrating to Preston Street. Not long ago, aspirations ran the other way. Amazing what wider sidewalks will do.

Preston street chestnut

Street vendor on Preston Street on Sunday selling freshly roasted chestunuts.

He was located by the Italian Gelato store north of Gladstone.

Somerset Streetscaping - can it get back on the road?

The first meeting of stakeholders got together on Tuesday evening to discuss the streetscaping project on Somerset Street. The 2010 portion is from Preston to West Wellie. The portion shown above is in the Preston BIA catchment area. The portion beyond the bridge is in Hintonburg (Kitchissipi ward) and the Hintonburg BIA.

In 2011 the section from Preston to Booth will be done. That is the area behind the viewer in the above picture. It falls in the Chinatown BIA.

Yup, in a territory walkable in barely five minutes, there are two wards, 3 BIAs, 2 community associations, and other stakeholders. A nice streetscaping project might be do-able if the parties remain able to talk.

On the surface, the meeting was OK, with a few strongly expressed opinions. The main object of discussion was what style of lighting and paving should be installed on the Preston to Otrain section. This necessarily involved discussing what styles should be on the Otrain to West Wellie section, and up the slope into Chinatown.

 But still waters run deep. Since that meeting, my emails and phone have been busy with an extraordinary amount of traffic, all expressions of concern or dismay, many expressed much more strongly than the vague discontent I felt as the meeting ended.

I even received TWO notes of condolence, sent to me as President of the Dalhousie Community Association.

 It was a public meeting, for sharing opinions by a variety of neighborhood stakeholders. It did not help that one BIA seemed to not understand that basic premise and took an aggressive position and brooked no possible other opinion/compromise, and questioned that anyone could even consider anything on the street other than their opinion, or that the street could have any identity or be considered anything other than an expression of its BIA.

I got the impression (a view shared by some others) that the consultants and other city planners had some prior position-setting interactions, and the meeting was steered towards a pre-determined position that streetscaping should reflect jurisdictional zones rather than other understandings of what makes a neighborhood. It would have been better to have simply laid down the rules, if that was the case, rather than working through a bunch of ideas and dicusssions to end up at a predetermined point as that simply leaves  attendees feeling manipulated or ignored.

The planners suggested that the Somerset viaduct is a significant topographical feature to celebrate, and proposed a "thin bright line" of another paving style and light standard for this area. The area to get this special celebratory treatment might be very short (100' of road over the Otrain track) or longer, extending  further east towards Preston.

The planners seemed to have a tin ear to concerns that this may contradict the objectives of community groups that are trying to knit the Hintonburg and Dalhousie neighborhoods together, and recast the bridge into a neighborhood street that happens to be on  a hill. IMO, it might be possible to work the viaduct as a separate feature into some plan, but right now the idea just seems to add yet another paving and lighting scheme to an already cut up street. (There will be significant developments and infill on both sides of the viaduct, the city will direct that these projects abut the sidewalk line with active storefronts, etc so eventually the viaduct will transform into a mainstreet).(There is a separate planning study ongoing for the whole Otrain section from Bayview to Carling, one of the key emphases in that study is how to seamlessly integrate the neighborhoods, not celebrate their separation).

The most common single sentiment that I heard expressed in the room was that the streetscaping style should be more consistent from Preston to Hintonburg or from Chinatown to Hintonburg (but how this could be done was still undetermined). Many attendees expressed concerns there could be too many styles along the street. I am not the only person surprised that the consultants wrap up came to another conclusion (the jurisdiction point of view, with four separate streetscaping styles in four blocks; two of these styles would cover only a few hundred feet, or maybe two dozen light fixtures if you count both sides of the road).

If the multiple streetscaping styles go in, this will be the perspective of a No2 bus rider, a cyclist, a motorist, or pedestrian moving west along Somerset from centretown. They will experience

 a) the old Chinatown lights  &  pavements starting at Percy;

b) the new Chinatown lights between Bronson and Cambridge if they are installed as part of the Gateway;

c) the old Chinatown lights from Cambridge to Booth;

d) the new Chinatown lights from Booth to immediately before Preston;

e) the Preston style lights, which stretch off to the north and south along Preston, and then a dozen or so of the same fixtures on the Somerset block west of Preston;

f) the "viaduct celebration" lights and pavements,

g) the black Narnia lights of Hintonburg and its pavement style.

If the traveler is observant, they may also notice the dozen or so white-painted light fixtures of the Plant recreation area in yet another style. If there are any light styles or paving block patterns left in the City's catalogue, I am sure we can find some small pocket of space to fit them in too.

The Somerset streetscaping process is off to a rocky start. Can it be put back on the road? The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for next week!

Corso Italia meets Via Marconi

As part of the Preston streetscaping project, major changes will be coming to the intersection of Preston/Gladstone. The pavement pattern has been approved. It will be installed and maintained by the Preston BIA. The planned use of brick pavers has run into technical snags, however, and alternative paving materials are being examined.

The BIA is also planning a celebratory sculpture arrangement at the corner. The draft concept sketch shown above is of 24' high soccer players  made of concrete, metal,  and stained glass.  There would be benches along their feet.

Wayfinding in Little Italy

The city continues to upgrade the streetscaping along Preston. All new street signs are being installed at the intersections. While each cross street got its sign (one on the west side, one on the east side) not all of the intersections got the Preston Street sign, as shown here.

"Elegant, Romantic" and Christmasy

These photos on Preston Street south of the Qway overpass were taken by Rachel Pereira. They highlight what a huge change has come over this street as it has been renovated by the City and the BIA and individual merchants.

In case you missed the pun, the Elegant Romatic terms come from Sunday's Citizen story by Maria Cook on the rejuvenation of Preston. Here's the photo link:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/photos/Gallery+Preston+Street/2335008/story.html; and here's the story link: http://www.google.ca/reader/view/?tab=my#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fcommunities.canada.com%2Fottawacitizen%2Fblogs%2Fdesigningottawa%2Frss.aspx; which is to Maria Cook's on-line edition.

Corso Italia

One of the delights of the Preston Street rehabilitation has been the Preston BIA's remaking of the Queensway underpass into an interesting highlight of the street. Instead of the former dark and dreary underpass, the framed murals and background murals are great eye candy. The west side is Preston Street yesterday and today; the east side is the immigration story.

In the spring, the east side sidewalk will be further developed into a place to linger, with special sidewalk light fixtures and paving. The north end of this zone opens onto the parking lot at 301 Preston, which is converted into a festival plaza during special events like Italian Week. Recall too that large signs have been posted on both sides of the overpass, which in the next few days will be backlit at night.

The wall-mounted light fixtures in the underpass are being replaced now with fewer fixtures, presumably brighter. This will necessitate touching up the mural paintings.

Who would have thought an underpass could be made into a neighborhood focus?

Sk8ers UnStoned on grass ...

Plouffe Park can be found behind the Plant Recreation Complex. Part of it runs along Preston street. Part of it used to run along Somerset street too, but the City found it convenient to convert the kiddie playground into a parking lot so motorists don't have far to walk so far to the Complex to get their exercise ....

Along the Preston side, pedestrians parambulating the Little Italy wide landscaped sidewalks are presented with numerous opportunities to rest their derrieres on benches. There are also several planter sections that double as benches along the sidewalk. Naturally, skateboarders will sometime discover these concrete edges and make entertaining use of them. To prevent this, the City and property owners add small metal clips to the leading edge, which discourages said playing activity.

The City installed these anti-sk8er devices on the park side of the planters, keeping sk8ers off the stones and on the grass. The sidewalk side of the planters, where sk8ers are more likely to avail themselves of the stonework, were left vulnerable. So the street side is stoned off grass, while the park side is unstoned on grass.

Writ Big

Signs appeared recently on the Queensway overpass over Preston Street. On both sides -- facing north, facing south -- have appeared these large channel letter signs. While not lit up when I saw them, they look like they could be lit up.

Real estate speculators and condo buyers will have no problem knowing when they are in trendy (according to Ken Gray at the Ottawa Citizen)  Little Italy.

Bayview-Carling CDP Re-Activated !

Along the OTrain corridor is this hidden gem.

After a long struggle by residents and the neighborhood associations (the Dalhousie Community Association and the Hintonburg Community Association), and with much behind-the-scenes pushing by the concerned Councillors Holmes and Leadman, the Bayview-Carling Community Design Plan has been reactivated by the city.

The focus of the plan is Bayview Station to Carling Avenue, along the OTrain track, which is currently the subject of a development frenzy by condo and office developers who feel the time is right for the rebirth of this former industrial zone. No doubt some of the "time is right" feeling comes from the impending completion of the Preston Streetscaping project that puts Little Italy firmly into the trendy neighborhood category.

In the early 1960's, the NCC paid to remove many of the railway lines in Ottawa, as "relics" of an industrial era unsuited to modern government cities. (My first government job was with the Cdn Transport Commission, a quasi-judicial and regulatory body, where I researched and wrote the first analysis of the relocation process and what it accomplished). Most of the rail lines, condemmed as barriers between neighborhoods, were replaced by roads, such as the Queensway, Colonel By Drive. Other roads, such as the Champagne Arterial which would have run from Fairy Lake Parkway over the River through Dalhousie, through the Carleton Campus, and join the Ottawa Airport Parkway by the Taxation Building, were not completed). In retrospect, the highways that replaced the railways are bigger barriers and problems today than the rails were before. Someday we may wish to convert them back to rail, especially Colonel By Drive and the Alexandra Bridge.

The CDP is another chance for the neighborhood to gets its wishes into the planning process. While a lot of the planning horses have left the barn, there are still some that can be harnessed. Most particularly, I will be pushing for Transit Oriented Development that has some teeth, additional pedestrian crossings of the tracks at Hickory and elsewhere, a real north-south bike route from the river to Dow's Lake, a larger  park at Beech.etc.

The first meeting, primarily aimed at getting participants in the original study back into the process, will be the initial Public Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday, December 10th, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m., at Room 4102E/4103E, City Hall. The rooms are located on the fourth floor at City Hall.

The Luigi

I note in today's paper the recent demise of His Tremendousness, Giorgio Carbone, the elected prince of the principality of Seborga -- (Bing it!)

What caught my interest was the name of the coin of the realm: in addition to the Euro, they had the Luigino. Hmm.

Given the popularity of Luigi, spokescharacter for Preston Street, who had locals and tourists alike posing for pictures with his sign likeness, and who enjoyed a certain popularity with the light-fingered, perhaps the Preston BIA should mint its own currency, the Luigi. Make it a 25c or dollar coin, use it for change at the restuarants, etc. The seigniorage potential ...

Condo mania on OTrain corridor

The issue of Ottawa Business Journal (OBJ) out this past week has a major story on the development pressures along the Carling-Bayview OTrain corridor, parallel to Preston's trendy Little Italy.

They interviewed me (tiny bit, amongst more illustrious others) following my postings about developments at the Champagne/Hickory/Carling area. You can read their story at http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/295971895949675.php

Last week I attended the Civic Hospital Neighborhood Assoc meeting. First item was the new development by Domicile at the corner of Hickory and Champagne Avenue (shown below). The site is now a one storey industrial building, and is zoned for 4 storey redevelopment.

A month or so ago, I heard Domicile was planning an eight storey condo tower on the site, along with six townhouses facing Hickory. The plan unveiled at the CHNA meeting was for the same six townhouses, but now a 12 storey building. I wondered where the additional height came from: the developer or the city? The proposed tower is significantly higher than the Merion Square project (9 floors, two towers) immediately adjacent, on a much larger site.

I expected there to be a lot of comment on the height of the building, as it backs onto single houses. But there was nary a peep on the issue, despite the developers architect and planners continually opening the door to the issue. Instead, all the commentary was saved for Ron Jacks, the traffic consultant, who did a fine job of dealing with the questions. The 101 condos will generate one car per 12 minutes for rush hour along Sherwood Drive, which aggravated some attendees.

 The Domicile site needs rezoning before it can go ahead. Recall that 855 Carling is also up for upzoning; and I hear the former Acquerello site has been sold to Mastercraft-Starwood, currently selling condos on Parkdale north of Scott. Alas, at the rate things are going, all the sites and heights will be determined before the City's Community Development Plan is re-activated, and all local bargaining power lost. Also lost will be any chance of establishing view planes so each set of residents will have an unobstructed view of Dow's Lake.

No permits necessary

There are some interesting comments on the recents posts about the lack of building permits for projects on Preston Street.

Above is the latest "stop work" order, posted on premises that are already occupied and in business.  It makes THREE of these in the same block and half of Preston Street. 

Preston Infill

This infill on Preston is rapidly being enclosed for winter completion. The window pattern is pleasing. There are two storefronts on the ground floor and six apartments above. The top floor is stepped back from the lower floors, which reduces the building bulk. It doesn't look like the flat roof on the second floor will be balconies/terraces, though, which seems a missed opportunity.

Late season landscaping

The continuing warm weather has created quality time for laying interlocking sidewalks and planting new trees along Preston Street. This section of Little Italy is near the Pub Italia, at the south end of the street.

Who Needs a Building Permit?

Another stop work order on a renovation on Preston Street. The upstairs has been gutted, new firewalls built, wiring and plumbing ... who would have thought a permit was necessary?

I gather the old Paradise water garden store will become an Indian grocery store.

Do renovators just try to do things without a permit to "beat the cost" of buying a permit? Or is to avoid the "rules" that might be in place (like zoning, permitted uses, FSI, etc) by hoping an as-built will get the go ahead that might not be possible for an application made in advance? Or is it that the City's building permit process is so slow that rennovators/builder'stennants cannot afford to wait for so long to get their permits?

Paving Preston

Just when it seemed Preston Street would never be paved, asphalt arrived. After months of seeing Hintonburg and other neighborhoods get their asphalt, the stuff is going down in Little Italy. The central section -- from Plouffe Park to the Qway -- is now paved. The two ends -- the Carling end, and the Albert Street end -- will be paved by the end of next week.